


Face Down

by fckingtimmy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - College/University, Drug Use, F/M, Happy Ending, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, M/M, Mutual Pining, Rape/Non-con Elements, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Underage Drinking, and he sucks, anyway, he is an actual frat boy, his name is chaz, keith has four piercings and a flame tattoo, lance has eight piercings and a wave tatto, more tags maybe, on a lighter note, the paladins are sophomores, when i was making the oc i wanted to punch him
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-04 20:53:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15849177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fckingtimmy/pseuds/fckingtimmy
Summary: Keith has a big ol' gay crush on Lance who is in a big ol' relationship...





	1. First Period

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING!! THIS FIC MAY BE TRIGGERING FOR SOME READERS!!
> 
> i wrote this to work on my writing skills and to broaden my technique in writing.
> 
> most of the mental and psychological aspects in this fic are from my experiences and problems.

Keith wakes up to IDOL playing on his phone, he looks at his clock and it reads 6:27. He doesn’t know why he sets his alarms for times that don’t end in :-5 or :-0. His first class is history at 8, so waking up this early means Keith can get coffee, shower, and get his shit together because first period means class with Lance. Keith and Lance have known each other since they were in kindergarten. They’ve been through everything together including first days of school, first concerts, first piercings, first tattoos, and first relationships. Keith has always had a crush on Lance since their first conversation during nap time. 

 

“Is that your hippo? It’s really cool. I have a shark, his name is Chompy.” 

 

“Uh yeah, it is.” 

 

“REALLY?!” little Lance yelled out causing the teacher to tell them to start sleeping, “Can I lay next to you?” 

 

And the rest is history. 

 

Keith finishes getting ready and makes his way over to the university. 

 

“Do you want to go to dinner tonight with Allura and I?” 

 

Keith looks over at the kitchen counter where Shiro is standing, mug in hand, with reading glasses on, looking at the newspaper. 

 

“Nah I can’t, I got work.” 

 

“Oooh, is Lance working tonight, too?” Shiro sends him a little smirk and Keith gladly gives him the middle finger. 

 

He walks out and is ready to spend his first class with loverboy. 

 

——— 

 

Hunk and Pidge wave over to Keith, telling him to sit with them. Keith walks over to where they are sitting and looks around which promptly leads him to ask where Lance is. 

 

“I dunno man, I didn’t see him when I left this morning.” Hunk says while pulling out his laptop. 

 

“He’s probably with Chaz.” 

 

Keith shoots Pidge a glare in which they respond with sticking out their tongue. 

 

——— 

 

All of Keith’s classes finish for the day and he catches a ride with Hunk to go find Lance. Hunk and Lance have lived together since freshman year (which was only last year considering they are sophomores). Hunk tells Keith that Lance hasn’t really been coming home recently because he’s been staying with Chaz. 

 

Hunk leads Keith into their apartment and tells him to go see if Lance is in his room. Keith has been to their apartment more times than he can count. He makes his way to Lance’s room and knocks on the door. He didn’t hear any sound coming from the other side, so he knocked again. Nothing. Keith just opens Lance’s door and goes inside. He’s been in his room before, but it looks significantly different than it looked just a few days prior. There are no usual shark posters and polaroids on the wall, it looked like everything was taken down. There are clothes all over the floor, which Lance would never let happen considering how much of a neat freak he is. Keith steps over the piles of clothes over to Lance’s bed where he sees a big lump in the middle. 

 

“Hey buddy. You in there?” Keith doesn’t hear or see anything from the bulge on the bed and starts to poke at it. 

 

“mmmmrghhhh.” 

 

“Lance. Buddy. Is that you?” 

 

“MMMMRghghhhh.” 

 

“Get up man, it’s almost 5. Have you been sleeping all day?” 

 

“Ye-” Lance cuts himself off and jumps in the air, finally noticing Keith standing by his bed, “What the hell, dude!? What are you doing here!?” 

 

Keith looks down at him and notices something on his face. 

 

“What is that?” 

 

“What is what?” Lance is still waking up, picking sleep out of his eyes. 

 

“You have a black eye and a cut on your lip.” 

 

Lance quickly puts his hand over his face like he suddenly remembered he had to cover it. 

 

“Oh yeah, uh, I just ran into a pole this morning while taking a run. Must’ve left a bigger mark than I thought.” 

 

“I know that’s not true because you don’t run in the morning. As a matter of fact, you don’t run at all. It looks like someone punched you. Did you get in a fight?” 

 

“Dude, it’s nothing. I told you, I just ran into a pole. Now is that all because I would really like for you to leave?” 

 

Keith looks at him with a concerned face and says, “Sorry man, I just want to make sure you’re okay.” 

 

“Yeah I’m fine... Do you wanna watch a movie? I just got Deadpool 2.” 

 

“Uh, yeah, sure. You know you can talk to me if you need to.” 

 

“Yeah. I know.” 

 

They leave Lance’s room and move to the living room to sit on the couch. 

 

“Where’s Hunk?” 

 

“Probably has work.” 

 

“Oh. So how come you didn’t come to class today?” 

 

“I don’t know, I had a long night. I also busted my face on a pole and probably got a concussion.” 

 

“You could’ve answered my texts, I was really wor-” 

 

“DUDE! WE HAVE WORK TODAY!” 

 

“OH SHIT. I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT.” 

 

Keith and Lance run into Lance’s room to change and Lance lets Keith borrow his clothes. As they change, Keith notices more bruises on his arms, thighs, ribs, and back. They were all different colors from purple to yellow, showing him they have been collected over time. Keith decides to not ask Lance about it because he knows he’ll get some bullshit answer about a tree or something. They get in Lance’s car and Keith’s attention turns him to the back seat where he sees a bong and two empty bottles of vodka poorly hidden under a sweatshirt. 

 

“Lance, since when do you smoke? Better question, why are you drinking two bottles of vodka when you’re under age?” 

 

“Listen Samurai, I’m only 20. I literally have like almost 10 months till I can drink. And sometimes Chaz and I like to go smoke.” 

 

“I’ve never seen you smoke, and you hate the taste of vodka.” 

 

“Well I like it now.” 

 

“Is something up?” 

 

“No. Why would anything be ‘up?’” 

 

“Because you HATE vodka!” 

 

“WELL I LIKE IT NOW!” 

 

Keith hasn’t seen Lance that angry since Lance’s first girlfriend cheated on him with the entire football team. He also hasn’t seen him that hurt since his first girlfriend. He looks like someone burned his favorite shark plush. 

 

The rest of the ride is silent.


	2. Fire and Water

Keith and Lance pull up to Altea and head to the back to put on their uniforms. Keith is a bus boy and Lance is a host. As Keith is bussing tables, he sees someone familiar walk in. 

 

“Hey Shiro. Allura. How are my two favorite people doing tonight?” 

 

“Great, Lance. Thank you for asking,” Allura says as she wraps her arm around Shiro’s prosthetic. 

 

“Table for two I presume?” 

 

“Yep.” 

 

Lance leads them to a corner booth and someone comes over to take their orders. 

 

They order some food and drink, talk, laugh, do normal couple things and Keith sees Lance make a distressed face. He goes over to talk to him when Shiro calls him over. 

 

“Hey little bro. Havin’ fun staring at your boyfriend?” 

 

“Shiro!!” Keith and Allura say simultaneously. 

 

“What? I'm just pointing out the obvious.” 

 

“Yeah, well I’m not Lance’s boyfriend and yeah I was having fun staring at him.” 

 

——— 

 

Keith goes to the back to change out of his uniform as Lance walks in and heads to the bathroom. He comes out and walks over to the sink, pulling up his shirt sleeves revealing his wrists. Keith is so shocked and so mad at himself for not seeing them earlier, he runs over to Lance’s side and grabs his wrists, still wet from washing his hands. 

 

“What did you do?” 

 

“None of your business.” 

 

“Yeah it is my business when my best friend is hurting himself!” 

 

Lance just pulls his hands from Keith’s and walks away. 

 

“Don’t you dare leave while we are having this conversation!” 

 

He doesn’t stop and walks out the door. 

 

Keith doesn’t go after him, he just stands there, shocked and worried. 

 

——— 

 

Four years ago (when they were just sophomores in high school), Lance came out as bisexual. Keith, on the other hand, came out years before then to only Shiro, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge. Where they went to high school, not a lot of people cared about other people, they were just focused on getting out of there. Some people, on the other hand, loved making high school a shit show for everyone, including Lance. 

 

When Lotor heard about Lance coming out as bi, he knew he had an opening to bring him down. Lotor was a senior, so when he came up to Lance asking to go on a date, how could Lance refuse? Keith remembers it like it was yesterday. Lance running up to him in the halls all giddy because he got asked on a date, by a senior no less. The only reason Keith didn’t really care who Lance was going on a date with, was because it wasn’t with him. But the fact that Lance was going on a date with Lotor, the BIGGEST fuckboy in the Garrison, made Keith really concerned because 1. Lotor showed no sign to being remotely interested in guys and 2. he was notorious for beating up anyone who showed the littlest amount of homosexuality. So yeah, Keith was concerned but Lance seemed excited, so Keith kept his mouth shut. 

 

The date was set for that Friday to the drive-in movie theater and Lance couldn’t stop bouncing off the walls. Before Lotor picked him up, Lance went to Keith’s and Shiro’s to figure out what he was going to wear. He always loved wearing Keith’s clothes because Keith was a little smaller than him, so he liked when the clothes would feel tight. 

 

“You alright buddy? You’re looking a little more broody-ey today.” 

 

“Oh, yeah I’m fine.” 

 

“Really? Cause your face is saying something different.” 

 

“I just think it’s a little weird that Lotor of all people suddenly became interested with dudes, that’s all.” 

 

“Yeah well I guess when he heard I was officially on the male market, he couldn’t resist.” 

 

“Oh yeah, I'm sure that’s why asked you out. Look, all I'm saying is that you should be careful and call me if you need me.” 

 

“Of course, man. How could I not call my trusty Samurai if I was in trouble?” 

 

Keith just hoped Lance didn’t notice the way his cheeks turned pink when he called him ‘Samurai.’ 

 

————— 

 

Keith wakes up to his phone ringing and when he saw who was calling, he immediately answered. 

 

“Lance! Are you okay?” 

 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Could you just pick me up?” 

 

Lance sounded like he was about to cry. 

 

“Send me your location.” 

 

——— 

 

When Keith finally reached Lance, he knew right away that he needed help. His face was beaten and bloody, his clothes (technically Keith’s) were torn, and it looked like he was walking on a limp. 

 

“What the hell happened man?” 

 

“Fucking Lotor. I guess old habits do die hard.” 

 

“Lotor did this to you? Where is he? I’ll go beat him up.” 

 

“He left like an hour ago.” 

 

“...So, have you just been sitting here for an hour waiting for someone to get you?” 

 

“No... I just woke up.” 

 

“You mean you were unconscious this whole time?! What did he do to you?” 

 

“Well, when he picked me up, he wasn’t alone. At first, I thought, ‘Oh we must be going on a double date or something’ but then I saw who was actually in the car, and I started think something was up.” 

 

“Then why didn’t you come out, and come back with me?” 

 

“Because I really wanted this to work. Anyways, I looked back and it was like four players from the football team and then I was really confused cause like maybe he didn’t actually mean a date, maybe he meant like a hangout with all his buds to go over to his house and play video games or something and I was just so confused. Then, they started passing around this water bottle and they asked me if I wanted to drink it and my mouth was kinda dry so I said sure because I was just fucking thirsty, so I started to chug it and when I was done, I felt sick to my stomach because it wasn’t water, it was fucking vodka and that was the first time I ever drank before and I was so scared because you weren’t there to talk me through anything so I threw up all over his nice black Jeep and then everyone screamed at me and Lotor pulled over to clean his car, and he was really nice and understanding like, ‘You didn’t have to drink it if you didn’t know what it was’ and stuff like that, then he yelled at his friends for yelling at me and I thought, ‘Okay he might not be as bad as I thought’ but boy was I wrong. We got back in the car and ended up passing the theater and ended up here. I was like ‘Lotor, what are we doing here?’ and he said, ‘No reason, it’s just really pretty.’ So, we all get out of the car and I walked over to that rock and sat down at looked at the sky because all the stars really made it pretty and I was like oh yeah this is really pretty and then the next thing I knew, they started beating me up.” 

 

“God, Lance, I'm so sorry. You didn’t deserve it, he doesn’t deserve you.” Keith didn’t know then, but after he took Lance home, that would begin the first of many cuts he began seeing on Lance. 

 

——— 

 

A year after that, when they were juniors, Keith noticed no new scars on Lance’s wrists or thighs. 

 

“Hey Lance. You doin’ better?” 

 

“Yeah, I think I actually am.” 

 

And he was, until senior year when they went to the amusement park. 

 

——— 

 

Keith walks out of the restaurant looking for Lance or his car. When he couldn’t find it, he just assumed he had already left. 

 

“Keith!” He looked over his shoulder to see his big bro waving at him to come over to the car, “I’m taking you home buddy. Lance said he had to go somewhere so he couldn’t take you.” 

 

“Oh. Alright.” Keith gets in the passenger side of Shiro’s car and eventually pull up to their apartment. 

 

They walk through the doorway and Keith hears the door shut behind him. 

 

“Are you alright, Keith?” Shiro asks in his ‘dad voice.’ 

 

“Yeah, I’m perfect.” 

 

“Uh-huh. Then why do you look more emo than usual? Tell me what’s up.” 

 

“It’s just that, *sigh* I’m really worried about Lance.” 

 

“Why are you worried?” 

 

“I just am. He doesn’t seem like his normal self. He’s been acting really weird and I just wanna make sure he’s ok.” 

 

“Then why don’t you talk to him?” 

 

“Because whenever I ask what’s wrong he always just says he’s fine.” 

 

“Then you gotta keep asking until he caves. I’ve known Lance a long time, granted, not as long as you, but I do know that when he is upset, you just have to keep pushing him till he breaks.” 

 

“I guess but still, I wouldn’t even know what to say to him.” 

 

“I’m sure you’ll know when you guys talk.” 

 

“Ok. Thanks, dad.” 

 

“No problem, son. Goodnight and talk to Lance tomorrow.” 

 

“I will. Goodnight.” 

 

When Keith finally lays down on his bed, he looks at his wrist where there is a little wave tattoo, one of his many tatts, but this one is special. This little wave tattoo was his first, picked out by Lance. Lance also has a tattoo on the same spot on his wrist, a little flame that Keith picked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took me a brick to write.
> 
> also, school starts on tuesday so i might not be updating for a while. 
> 
> next time i post, will probably be in two or three weeks.
> 
> deuces.

**Author's Note:**

> hang on tight...


End file.
